The following paper will look at the dangerous consequences for scientists who believe they can "play god". For two literary examples, I'll be discussing Victor Frankenstein in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," and"Moreau in H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau."f By so doing, this paper will show how each character embodies the concept of scientist as God and how the two men differ in their moral sensibilities and in terms of how they deal with their own responsibility for the horrors they have wrought; most notably, the sheer absence of a moral compass in Moreau will be highlighted. Finally, the paper will conclude by suggesting that the risk of humans playing God often outweighs any transitory benefits. In the end, where human hubris goes, evil is sure to follow. To begin with, Victor Frankenstein wishes to assume the mantle of God and, in so doing, neatly captures the concept of "scientist as God  in a way that few characters of fiction are able. After all, he wishes to mold from inanimate things “ specifically, the body parts of the dead, “a living being; in this regard, he is no different than the biblical God of Genesis who creates man out of clay. For his part, Moreau is not so much interested in breathing life into death as he is interested in turning life into something else altogether. For instance, it soon becomes evident that his work entails creating strange half-human, half-animal creatures" (Wells 89-90) At first glance, it seems as though Moreau wishes to become a sort of God, ruling tyrannically over a novel race of being. This impression is bolstered by the occasion, early in the novel, when Edward Prendrick stumbles upon several of the abominations and hears the following awful chant: "His (Moreau's) is the House of Pain; His is the Hand that makes; His is the Hand that wounds; His is the Hand that heals  (Wells 118). Understandably, it appears to Wells's Prendrick that Moreau is trying to become as God (Wells, 119); this initial belief is strengthened when Moreau corners the frightened Prendrick and tells him that his objective is to speed up the evolutionary process or to turn evolution down a new course by experimenting on animals (Wells 133-134). Suffice it to say, it is appropriate to suggest that Moreau really wants to create new life with something akin to the speed of the God of the Bible: "Each time I dip a living creature into the bath of burning pain, I say, 'This ti